Law Schools

10 Things You Should Never Do Immediately After A Final Exam

Don't do this stuff. Seriously.

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It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas finals, everywhere you go…..

I usually give advice around this time of year about what to do to prepare for finals.  But today, I plan on focusing on things you should NOT do immediately after a final exam.  For purposes of this list, I’m going to assume you still have other finals left to take after the exam in question.

  1. Do not go discuss the final with your friends or colleagues. No matter who is right, one person will convince the others of the correctness of one answer, sending the rest of you into a tailspin.  Or worse:  Maybe everyone got the same answer but you.  Either way, your self-esteem will suffer a tremendous blow.  Notice I didn’t say who ends up being right.  That doesn’t matter in the moment.  You won’t know who’s right until much later in many cases.

 

  1. Do not get drunk. Yes, your exam ended at noon and you want to put it past you, but when you wake up with a hangover the next day you’ll start the day off panicked.  This is especially true if you have back-to-back finals.  Even if it is just a study day, you want to start the new day off refreshed and ready to tackle the next final.  Yes, a glass of wine is fine.  Put the bottle down, though.  You can’t study flash cards while praying to the porcelain god.  They aren’t called flush cards.

 

  1. Do not engage in negative self-talk. You know, the self-talk tape you play in your head that started the minute you turned in your final exam.  Omg, I just bombed that exam.  I had no idea what I was doing.  I’m going to flunk out of law school.  I’m going to have to start a new career as a motivational coach.  Omg.  I’m a horrible person.  I’d get fired from my job as a motivational coach because everything I do turns out badly. I had a friend who did that in law school.  She’s a judge now.  Yeah, that’s right.  Every time she walked out of a final she said those things aloud.  Every time.  It was like one of my friends was Charlie Brown.  Now she’s a judge. Again, you don’t know how you did.  All that negative self-talk is your inner demons playing with you.  Don’t let them.

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  1. Do not go back and look at your outlines or other material for the exam you just took. You know what you’re looking for.  You’re looking for trouble.  You just want to see if you screwed up.  And, confirming you screwed up, you can proceed to the terrible self-talk we just covered in #8.

 

  1. Do not hang around the law school after the final exam. Don’t wait around for the post-game show with other students.  Don’t look for comforting words from your colleagues.  They will be looking for the same, and that won’t end well.  Don’t go the library to study.  Fact is, you need a change of scenery.  You need some fresh air.  You need to clear your mind.

 

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  1. Do not binge watch Netflix. Even if it’s Daredevil.  Seriously, watching TV will cause your brain to atrophy.  You need to rest your brain, not sedate it.  Once you start down this path, it will grab hold of you the next day when you need to study.

 

  1. Do not “whiff” (“what if”) yourself. The anxious mind can go into a spiral.  “What if I fail?”  “What if I didn’t address this?  What if……”  Unlike #8, wherein the self-talk is designed to destroy the remainder of your self-esteem, this type of talk is your anxiety trying to keep you in that state by getting it to spin out of control.  You will plot every scenario, from hearing you flunked out of law school to how to pay back your student loans as you work as [insert horrific job here].   It is time wasted worrying.

 

  1. Don’t stray out of your comfort zone. This is not the time to try new foods, new restaurants, take up new hobbies, or otherwise jostle yourself.  Stay in your lane for now, and do that skydiving class you’ve always wanted to try after your last final.

 

  1. Don’t forget the basics of life. Don’t forget to have lunch or dinner.  Don’t forget to exercise.  Don’t forget to show compassion toward others.  Don’t forget the world exists beyond the confines of one professor’s final exam.

 

  1. Don’t forget that this advice might apply to the bar exam as well.

LawProfBlawg is an anonymous professor at a top 100 law school. You can see more of his musings here.  He is way funnier on social media, he claims.  Please follow him on Twitter (@lawprofblawg) or Facebook. Email him at lawprofblawg@gmail.com.

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